Board statement on academic governance

March 28, 2010

SIGCSE, representing the international community of computer science
educators, is deeply troubled by news reports that the governing board
of at least one institution of higher education has circumvented
ordinary faculty governance channels in discontinuing its computer
science major. See the archives of SIGCSE-members @listserv.acm.org.

The SIGCSE Board has issued the following statement:

“SIGCSE strongly endorses the principle that faculty members are
professionals who through virtue of their specialized expertise ought to
have primary responsibility for matters of curriculum and faculty
status. SIGCSE supports particular expressions of that principle which
have been developed within the context of individual nations' and
regions' higher education systems. (See below for examples articulating
the principle.)

**********************************
UNESCO -- Paragraph 32 of "Recommendation concerning the Status of
Higher-Education Teaching Personnel" adopted by the General Conference
of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) at its 29th session, Paris, 21 October - 12 November
1997.

AAUP “Statement on Government of Colleges and Universities” (within the
United States)